It took about 15 minutes to fold my papers, load them into c

It took about 15 minutes to fold my papers, load them into canvas bags, hang the bags on the handlebars of my bike and go ride the route.

I got good a throwing the papers and hitting the porch or sidewalk. It was nasty in the rain and I typically walked the route wearing a poncho over the bags holding the papers, ending up soaked to the bone. I finished up the morning work by about 6:15, crawled back into bed and slept ‘til 7 or so.

There was an old guy on this route who scared the bejezus out of me. I was delivering papers in the 5-6 AM time frame in the dark. I would be riding on his street and he would surprise me by appearing suddenly out of nowhere, stop me and quote scary scripture to me. One of his favorite phrases was, “The moon’s gonna turn to jelly blood and all the souls in the sea will die.” This delivered in an old man’s shaky voice, with a reddish moon rising in the east was enough to really frighten an 11 year old.